The Reality of Robot Surrogates
From: IEEE Spectrum - 09/23/2009
By: Anne-Marie Corley

Telepresence technology has a long way to go before people can perform
everyday duties with robotic avatars. Present-day telepresence interfaces
consist of joysticks, wireless Internet links, video cameras, and audio
through which people control robots. A NextGen Research study anticipates a
booming market for domestic telepresence systems in the next five years.
Telepresence is the most sensible choice for security and surveillance
robots, according to study project manager Larry Fisher. Some contemporary
telepresence machines are designed for functions outside of personal use,
such as a robot that is controlled by a remote doctor via a joystick and
secure Internet link to treat patients with stroke symptoms in 31 Michigan
hospitals. Science fiction movies often portray robotic control through a
direct connection to the human brain, and there is research underway to
create and perfect brain-machine interfaces so that people can control robots
by thought. Neuroscientists learned in the late 1990s that implanting
electrodes in animals' brains and connecting them to computers made it
possible to decode their intent. University of Florida researchers Jose
Principe and Justin Sanchez are working on an interface that uses the motor
cortex to trigger actions not related to movement. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/humanoids/the-reality-of-robot-surrogates

Links:
NextGen Research
http://www.nextgenresearch.com/research/1004160-Personal_Robotics_2009

Robot nurses to cut health care costs
http://news.cnet.com/8300-12_3-76.html?keyword=iRobot

Jose Principe
http://www.cnel.ufl.edu/principe/principe.html